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Rotation 2021-2

To me, Gilyard is our best player and it really isn't close. Honestly, I would put Burton ahead of Grant as well, because I know Burton is gonna give us offense, rebounding, and defense. Grant was our most indispensible player because of our lack of front court depth, but we have some depth now.

Certainly we are a better team when Grant is playing, but I don't want 30 minutes of Grant Golden with him taking plays off on defense or avoiding fouls to our defensive detriment. I'd rather have 20-25 minutes of 100% Grant Golden, knowing that we have Grace and Sal who can come in and also give us 100% effort in a reserve role.

I'm never surprised by Mooney defenders advocating the status quo from years past. What exactly did that status quo get us last year, probably our most underperforming team in Richmond history. So, yeah, lets run it back like last year. Lol.

Go back and watch the NIT games and you will see the different level of intensity that the team played without Grant. That's the level of intensity and focus this team needs for 40 minutes. We just don't get that with trying to max Golden's minutes, why do I know that, because I just need to watch tape of the last 4 years.
 
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I need to watch tape too, because I don't see this lack of effort or intensity on defense from Grant that you continue to talk about. he always plays hard to me.
 
spiderman said:
I need to watch tape too, because I don't see this lack of effort or intensity on defense from Grant that you continue to talk about. he always plays hard to me.
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Effort may be the wrong word. Because people interpret it that he is lazy. I don't think that is the case. What I see with Grant is he gets beat far too easily (very slow foot speed) and when he does get beat, he just lets the play proceed, which usually results in an easy bucket. This is exacerbated by the fact that our guards are also not good at denying dribble penetration and as such then Grant serves as our rim protector, but that is not and never will be Grant's strong suit, he just isn't athletic enough.
 
97spiderfan said:
Honestly, I would put Burton ahead of Grant as well, because I know Burton is gonna give us offense, rebounding, and defense.
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Rothstein agrees

collegehoopstoday.com

15 players who will become stars during the 21-22 season

It’s never too early to start looking ahead! Check below for our list of 15 players who will become stars during the 21-22 college basketball season. In no particular order: Andre Curbelo, Illinois: Brad Underwood has regularly referred to Curbelo as an “alpha”. That label will be more...
collegehoopstoday.com collegehoopstoday.com
 
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I agree that we have too many players and too much varied talent to just send the expected starting 5 out there to play 35 minutes a night every game and expect to dominate people. It hasn't happened in the last 4/5 years, except in spurts here and there, and after last year's disaster, we shouldn't expect everything to magically click in year 5/6. This is where Mooney the game coach needs to earn his $1.3 million. Figure out how to get the most out of the starters but push the right buttons to get our next 5-6 guys making key contributions in the key minutes they play. They need to be ready to come in and make a difference.
 
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Eight Legger said:
I agree that we have too many players and too much varied talent to just send the expected starting 5 out there to play 35 minutes a night every game and expect to dominate people. It hasn't happened in the last 4/5 years, except in spurts here and there, and after last year's disaster, we shouldn't expect everything to magically click in year 5/6. This is where Mooney the game coach needs to earn his $1.3 million. Figure out how to get the most out of the starters but push the right buttons to get our next 5-6 guys making key contributions in the key minutes they play. They need to be ready to come in and make a difference.
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I expect to see what we always see. I am sure the thought process will be “stay with what works” even if it hasn’t for the last 4/5 years. Why adjust the approach for a one year anomaly where you almost have an extra starting 5 (ie the 4 super seniors plus the starting five if there were no super seniors). The Spiders will never be deeper, but I doubt that gets CM out of the “comfort zone”.
 
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8legs1dream said:
Rothstein agrees

collegehoopstoday.com

15 players who will become stars during the 21-22 season

It’s never too early to start looking ahead! Check below for our list of 15 players who will become stars during the 21-22 college basketball season. In no particular order: Andre Curbelo, Illinois: Brad Underwood has regularly referred to Curbelo as an “alpha”. That label will be more...
collegehoopstoday.com collegehoopstoday.com
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That was prescient. I posted that and checked Twitter and saw that Tyler had made this list. Very deserving.
 
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RichmondNative said:
I expect to see what we always see. I am sure the thought process will be “stay with what works” even if it hasn’t for the last 4/5 years. Why adjust the approach for a one year anomaly where you almost have an extra starting 5 (ie the 4 super seniors plus the starting five if there were no super seniors). The Spiders will never be deeper, but I doubt that gets CM out of the “comfort zone”.
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I'm hoping Mooney saw what happened in the NIT when he was forced from his comfort zone due to injury and he saw other players step up. Dji, Grace, Sal, and Wilson all performed very well in the NIT. Hopefully, this means Mooney is getting his reserves in positions to succeed and if one of the starters is having an off night or not executing as they should, they get subbed out. It also sends a message to everyone that we need 100% effort and focus night in and night out. If you have a guy who is moaning to the ref, has some bad body language out there, is not making the hustle plays, sit them down for a bit, because we have another horse to come in.

And one thing I know about some of the reserves and their mindset, is that they are going to come in and make those hustle plays if one of the starters isn't.
 
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Nelson certainly looks to be full speed. I wondered if it might be better for him to redshirt this year if the injury was hampering him at all, but seems it's not an issue.

 
spiderman said:
I need to watch tape too, because I don't see this lack of effort or intensity on defense from Grant that you continue to talk about. he always plays hard to me.
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You don’t need to watch the tape as you’re right. He sometimes tries to avoid fouls but that’s because we are a better team with him on the floor and I’m 100% certain the coaches correctly tell him to do that.
97spiderfan said:
Effort may be the wrong word. Because people interpret it that he is lazy. I don't think that is the case. What I see with Grant is he gets beat far too easily (very slow foot speed) and when he does get beat, he just lets the play proceed, which usually results in an easy bucket. This is exacerbated by the fact that our guards are also not good at denying dribble penetration and as such then Grant serves as our rim protector, but that is not and never will be Grant's strong suit, he just isn't athletic enough.
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You need to get back to watching tape as I’m not sure what you’ve been looking at recently.
 
Very good news to see Nelson moving freely. It sounded like a major injury and surgery, and obviously the feet take a lot of stress in hoops, so good to see him on or ahead of schedule. I have him pegged as the next great Richmond PG, cheering hard for him, even if he likely curses us to 10 more years of Mooney. Maybe by the time he is done, Kevin Anderson or Kenny Atkinson JR will come along. THough it does not seem we do that well recruiting legacy players. Started off good with Ryan Butler.
 
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Long Island Spiders said:
I’m not surprised about the Mooney hate by some on this board but come on Grant is our best player and we need him to have any chance for a deep March run.

I wonder — and I’m looking at you SF and Spiderman — what the +/- in points is the last two seasons when grant is on the floor versus not. I personally am always holding by breath when he’s out as I see both a drop off in our offense AND defense. We are definitely a better team when Grant is playing — it’s a pretty simple formula.
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So one datapoint your can look at is team performance as a function of wins and losses mapped against GG minutes. For two seasons where GG averaged over 30mpg we were a combined 25-40 whereas the two seasons he averaged under 28mpg we were 38-16.

Similarly, our defensive adjusted efficiency rating was its best in years when GG averaged his fewest minutes (AdjD 95.3, 53rd), and last year was 99th, where he averaged higher minutes, and then we were pretty abysmal at 234th and 289th the two years before that when he averaged over 30.

Obviously you can’t take these in isolation, it’s a team game and the makeup of the team makes a huge difference, particularly as guys mature. Certainly you’d expect defense and performance to improve as these guys became upper classmen, which it did. But statistically, this group has been at its best defensively the past four years when GG plays {slightly} fewer minutes.

I don’t think many if any would contest that Grant is a critical cog for the team and in our top 2-3 guys. But it’s a reasonable argument to think he is a better player if he’s going hard for a couple less mpg.
 
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lol. I personally don't believe there's any correlation to our wins and losses and an arbitrary 30 minute cut off for his minutes.

grabbing stats like that would also imply that we're better when Grant scores less, rebounds less and blocks fewer shots.
 
Long Island Spiders said:
You don’t need to watch the tape as you’re right. He sometimes tries to avoid fouls but that’s because we are a better team with him on the floor and I’m 100% certain the coaches correctly tell him to do that.

You need to get back to watching tape as I’m not sure what you’ve been looking at recently.
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4700 is that you? Seems like we got a new Mooney lapdog on board if not.
 
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spiderman said:
lol. I personally don't believe there's any correlation to our wins and losses and an arbitrary 30 minute cut off for his minutes.

grabbing stats like that would also imply that we're better when Grant scores less, rebounds less and blocks fewer shots.
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So there is clearly a correlation, I just provided the data. You can argue all you want about it, but there's a correlation.

People often confuse correlation with causality. Nowhere would I contend his minutes are causal to our one year wonder performance. But it is an interesting indication. I do think there's something to be said about fatigue with big guys and that perhaps a few minutes less per game may be meaningful, but that's super-speculative.
 
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fair enough. then I don't think Grant's reduced minutes in his junior and senior year caused our improved win record. just as I don't think his dip in scoring, rebounding and shot blocking helped either.

I don't know the appropriate minutes he should get. it's kind of "I'll know it when I see it" when he needs a break. same with everyone. Gilyard stands out to me. I know a break each half can help. but I'm not looking to limit his minutes to some arbitrary number. when he needs a break, give it to him. but if he's our best PG and he's not gassed, don't take him out just to take him out. I'll limit his practive runs on off days if he's getting worn down.
 
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spiderman said:
fair enough. then I don't think Grant's reduced minutes in his junior and senior year caused our improved win record. just as I don't think his dip in scoring, rebounding and shot blocking helped either.

I don't know the appropriate minutes he should get. it's kind of "I'll know it when I see it" when he needs a break. same with everyone. Gilyard stands out to me. I know a break each half can help. but I'm not looking to limit his minutes to some arbitrary number. when he needs a break, give it to him. but if he's out best PG and he's not gassed, don't take him out just to take him out. I'll limit his practive runs on off days if he's getting worn down.
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I get it and generally agree. I don't think there's much merit to the limiting minutes argument with the notable exception above, which is if a guy is gassed then he's likely hurting more than helping during that stretch. I don't have any idea if that's true for Grant. Going off my own experience when I was playing competitive sports, I do know that I could ramp my pace a bit up if I knew I had someone coming on for me but that was in soccer, so perhaps a different experience.
 
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Long Island Spiders said:
I love internet tough guys.

And I thought I was going to make friends with a group of people who share a passion for my beloved spiders
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giphy.gif
 
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Long Island Spiders said:
I love internet tough guys.

And I thought I was going to make friends with a group of people who share a passion for my beloved spiders
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Everyone here shares a passion for the beloved Spiders. They don't all share a passion for the Spider coach. No reason to let that dampen your spirit, just be prepared that not everyone has a flowers and rainbows view on program performance and direction. :)
 
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spiderman said:
fair enough. then I don't think Grant's reduced minutes in his junior and senior year caused our improved win record. just as I don't think his dip in scoring, rebounding and shot blocking helped either.

I don't know the appropriate minutes he should get. it's kind of "I'll know it when I see it" when he needs a break. same with everyone. Gilyard stands out to me. I know a break each half can help. but I'm not looking to limit his minutes to some arbitrary number. when he needs a break, give it to him. but if he's our best PG and he's not gassed, don't take him out just to take him out. I'll limit his practive runs on off days if he's getting worn down.
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Fair points. Each game will have match-ups issues that will favor certain players getting more time and some of our bench guys are good and their play will warrant more time for them.

I just happen to like the different looks that Sal/Grace can provide us at the center. I see both of those guys as showing steady improvement throughout their careers and Grant's play has kind of leveled off. Grant is still the better player than both of those but I think history shows us, Grant's is at his best when his minutes are in the 25 minute range and this year we finally have the option of two good subs that allow us to not overextend Grant's minutes.

Now, Grant lost weight, so maybe he is leaner and can play more this year. I don't know that, so just going off of where things ended last year. I suspect Sal and Grace have improved as well given their improvement last year.

Depth is a huge strength of this team and this is largely new for us, so interesting to see how this plays out, but I suspect that this depth will lead to less minutes from all our starters than we have seen in years past (maybe except for Gilly, as his motor is always going, and we want him on the court as much as possible.
 
we'll need a lot of overtime games to get everyone the kind of minutes I want them to get.
 
Excited to see both Grant and Sherod playing with less weight...especially Sherod. Never understood how the strength conditioning coach allowed him to play at 240lbs...
 
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spiderfriend said:
Excited to see both Grant and Sherod playing with less weight...especially Sherod. Never understood how the strength conditioning coach allowed him to play at 240lbs...
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yeah I thought the same thing. coming off an ACL, you'd think extra weight would put more strain on it.
 
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spiderman said:
yeah I thought the same thing. coming off an ACL, you'd think extra weight would put more strain on it.
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Sherod is "big boned". I think his weight has more to do with his body type. I'm sure he is in amazing physical condition. But yes, if he is lighter now, that has to be a good thing.
 
Eight Legger said:
I like this guy. Great attitude and outlook.
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Great interview. Yes, I like his attitude. I also like the fact that his body looks ready to play college ball. I haven't seen him play yet but he certainly checks all the boxes in what you want to see from a freshman.
 
Digging the practice jerseys. And GK will be happy to know Mooney found his Adidas gear.

galleries

First Men's Basketball Practice Photo Gallery
richmondspiders.com richmondspiders.com
 
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Rothstein is drinking the Spider kool-aid.

collegehoopstoday.com

5 teams on the rise entering the 21-22 season

It’s never too early to start looking ahead! Check below for our list of 5 teams on the rise during the 21-22 college basketball season. In no particular order: St. John’s: The Red Storm haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2000 — the longest current drought among current Big East teams...
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I'm a little tired of reading how old we are. I think we've got a lot more going for us than age.
 
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